The Morphology of Proteus Bacteriophages

Abstract

The morphology of 28 bacteriophages active on members of the ProteusProvidence group of organisms was examined by a negative staining technique. Examples of the 'T-even', T 3 and P22 morphologies were encountered as well as phages with non-contractile cross-striated tails resembling a group of coliphages. Others resemble staphylococcal and pseudomonas phages. Two phages (9, 7479) with octahedral capsids were encountered. A temperate Proteus mirabilis phage (12/57) and a temperate P . morganii phage (10041/2815) differ from phage P 22 in that they possess collars. A P. rettgeri phage (7480 b) is unique in that it possesses a head with a regular hexagonal outline, a collar and a non-contractile tail while a Providence phage (9266) is believed to be the largest phage active on Gram-negative bacteria.

The Morphology of Alcaligenes faecalis bacteriophages

“…A striking feature of these phages, both with and without tail sheaths, is the absence of cross-striation of the tails. Many phages previously described with the same general morphology possess cross-striations (Bradley & Kay, 1960;Bradley, 1963a, b;Prozesky et al 1965). The techniques employed were those of Prozesky et al (1965) and the absence of cross-striations may be due to the packing of the small subunits, so that striations are below the resolution obtainable.…”

“…Phage A86/A88 is larger than the others of this group. These phages are larger than the providence phage 9000/9402 (Prozesky, de Klerk & Coetzee, 1965) than the C1, F1 group of coliphages (Bradley, 1963a), both of which they resemble. Phage A5/A6 (Pl.…”

Properties of Proteus mirabilis and Providence Spheroplasts

“…Providence strain NCTC 92 1 I (Coetzee, I 963 a), Proteus mirabilis strain 13 (Coetzee & Sacks, 1960) and Escherichia coli strain B were used. For phage adsorption studies the temperate Providence bacteriophage PL 25 (Coetzee, 1963a) and the virulent P. mirabilis bacteriophage 13vir (Prozesky, De Klerk & Coetzee, 1965) were used.…”

Transductional Analysis of Cysteine Mutants in Proteus mirabilis

“…monella typhimurium since the percentage linkage between thesemarkersis 1-5 % in the former (Table 5) and 56 to 82 % in the latter (Demerec & Hartman, 1956). The difference in these values reflects a difference in chromosomal distance since the transducing phages 13 and P22 have similar head sizes (Prozesky et al 1965) and are thus expected to carry equivalent sections of host chromosome (Lennox, 1955;Enomoto, 1967;Sanderson, 1970;Mise & Suzuki, 1970). Genetic differences between P. mirabilis and S. typhimurium are expected since they have different guanine+ cytosine molar contents (see Grabow, 1972).…”